“Moving With Grace:” Stone Phillips’ New Documentary on Aging Parents

Many baby boomers today are finding that the biggest health issues they face pertain to the health of their aging parents.

The poignant topic is the subject of a documentary by filmmaker and television journalist Stone Phillips called “Moving With Grace.”

Phillips shot and produced the intimate, hour-long film which tells the story of how his parents moved from Missouri to an assisted living unit in North Carolina. “It started off as a home movie,” the former Dateline NBC co-anchor told MetroFocus’ Rafael Pi Roman.

The film’s title subject, Phillips’ mother Grace, suffers from dementia. The film documents the challenges the family faces, as they decide to move Grace and her husband of 66 years, Vic, from their St. Louis home.

“It really is a role reversal. We are parented by our parents, and at some point we have the unsettling experience of becoming a parent to them,” said Phillips.

“Moving With Grace” is airing on many PBS stations around the country. “Viewers have been emailing me through a website that I created,” Phillips told Pi Roman. “And really in my 25 or 30 years in network news, I don’t think I ever have had this kind of response, to this – which speaks to how big an issue this is, how widespread it is, and how emotional it is for so many viewers.”

You can watch “Moving With Grace” on Thirteen on April 20 at 7pm and April 21 at 2:30am, or on WLIW21 World on April 29 at 11am.

I don’t Tweet or Facebook or anything like that. I do not have Stone Phillips’ email so I will comment here. I just saw this moving documentary on PBS tonight (11/1/14). How fortunate that Stone and his family had the heart, the cohesiveness and the resources to care for their aging parents with such dignity. And how wonderful that Mr. & Mrs. Phillips were able to remain together and near their adult children. This is a huge challenge for any family and thank you for sharing your story.

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